believe her.
“I know.” No hesitation. No doubt. “We’re headed toward New Orleans now. I think we’ll be all right if you need to rest.”
She felt naked, laid bare to the world. She’d spent more power than she should have, certainly more than she should have had to spare. Rebuilding her shields and gathering the shreds of her self-control would take most of the endless drive back. If she concentrated on the ritual of it, the trancelike beauty of Callum’s waking dream, she wouldn’t have to face the stark, ugly truth.
Darkness lived inside her. Thrived, even. The slightest hint of danger to Andrew, and she lost her grip on morality. She maimed. She killed. Worst of all, she
All that training, and she was right back where she’d started. A broken girl with too much power and an unraveling grip on reality.
“Hang in there.” Andrew moved his hand back to the wheel. “Just hang in there if you can.”
“I’ll be okay.” Carefully phrased to avoid an outright lie, but maybe one anyway, if only because she didn’t really believe it.
“We’ll have to stop eventually, for restrooms or gas,” he murmured, “but we can take precautions.”
“Okay.” A shiver claimed her so hard her teeth knocked together. “I need to find the quiet place for a while. It’s like a trance, I guess. I need to rebuild my shields. As long as my breathing stays steady, I’m fine.”
The fear in the car spiked. “If you say so.”
Some tiny piece of her shattered, and her heart bled from it. “I won’t hurt you.”
He answered as if he’d heard her silent plea. “I’m not afraid of you, Kat. I never have been.” He glanced over. “I’m afraid
The hardest thing she’d done in months was hold out her hand. He took it and breathed a shaky sigh of what felt like relief.
Her body was too conflicted to stir with desire, her mind too fragmented. She moved their joined hands to rest on her leg and closed her eyes. “You can let go when you need to,” she whispered. “But it’s…nice.
It makes me feel like I’m not alone.”
His answer was concise—and anything but simple. “I’m here.”
Waking Kat seemed like a bad idea, so Andrew drove. He drove for nearly two hours, straight down the interstate, and pondered taking the exit ramp into downtown Birmingham—and back to Ben’s condo.
But he couldn’t guarantee they’d lost the trouble following them, couldn’t guarantee the safety of Kat’s friends.
He kept driving. The best thing to do would be get them home.
He finally had to stop just outside of Montgomery, and he reached over to shake her shoulder gently.
“Kat, wake up.”
At least she didn’t seem too deeply asleep. Her eyes fluttered open, and she squinted against the early- afternoon sunlight. “Where are we?”
“A place called Prattville. On the way back home.”
“Gas station munchies?” A ghost of a smile curved her lips. “I could use some chocolate. Three or four pounds of it.”
He could pay for the gas at the pump, but the only way to grab food was if she went in with him. “Got your land legs yet?”
“I’m fine.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and stretched. “I didn’t need that much sleep to get past it. The drain was more…emotional.”
He stuck close, even hovering outside the women’s restroom while she was inside, but the station was deserted, save for the bored clerk behind the counter. They piled its surface high with drinks and snacks, enough to keep them going until they’d reached New Orleans.
Outside, Andrew hustled Kat back to the SUV. “I’m not going to be able to rest until we get home.”
She must have had some sympathy, because she tolerated him opening her door and holding it as she climbed back in. When they were headed toward the interstate again, she dug through the bag and surfaced with a bag of Twizzlers. “Home, New Orleans? Or home, like your place?”
She sounded tense. “Got a preference?” he asked quietly.
“Do you?” Not just tension now, but a challenge.
“Makes sense to stick together until you get the information you need.”
Her fingers tightened around the Twizzlers until the plastic crinkled loudly. “So we’re just being practical?”
He made a concerted effort to breathe, to relax his hands on the steering wheel. “It would make me feel better—more secure, I mean—if we went to my place.”
“Okay.” The tips of her fingers barely brushed his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed.
You’ve had a shitty couple days, thanks to me, and hardly any sleep.”
Admitting as much felt like weakness, and something in him railed against it. “Just need to get you safe, that’s all.”
“Then go home, Andrew. To your home, if I’m invited.”
Having her there would soothe him. He knew it because he’d wanted it a hundred times over the last year. A thousand. “You’re always welcome.”
“Good.” Plastic crinkled again as she stored the candy and retrieved her phone. “I need to call Sera, then. If I were with anyone other than you, she’d have tattled on me already.”
He believed it. The young coyote tended to think every human belonged to the strongest shapeshifter with a claim. “Who would she tattle to? Julio?”
Kat actually laughed. “Hell, no. She wouldn’t go within ten feet of Julio if you paid her. She’d tell her dad, who would tell Alec, who would fly down here just to call us idiots to our faces.”
Maybe he would have, once upon a time. But now he had the Conclave to deal with, a million problems more pressing than Andrew and Kat getting themselves offed on a fool’s errand. “She could always call Derek, I guess.”
“I think I’ll keep her updated and happy.” Kat started to dial, then froze with her thumb hovering over the screen. “Unless you think she’s not safe in my apartment. They have to know where I live.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to get her out,” he admitted.
“Okay. Shit.” Guilt laced the words. “Damn it, after everything she’s been through… I was supposed to give her somewhere safe to crash. This went so wrong, so fast.”
Andrew could think of only one good option. “Send her to Anna.”
Kat stiffened, enough to be telling. “Yeah, you’re right. Anna’s tough. She can take care of anyone who needs help.”
“Anna,” Kat said, her voice careful and precise. “Sera needs a break from male shifters bossing her around. Anna makes sense, and my tender little feelings don’t get a vote.”
“I’ll call her.” He reached for his phone without taking his eyes off the road. “Want to give Sera the heads- up, maybe get her out to the bar?”
She made the call and laid out the situation for Sera in a calm, clear voice. Judging by the coyote’s reaction, Kat’s previous updates had glossed over all of the details involving danger and violence.
The conversation lasted through Montgomery and another ten miles past, both sides clearly audible in the silence of the car.
Kat hung up looking ragged around the edges. “Wow. Shapeshifters don’t like it when people shoot at their friends.”
“That can’t be news, sweetheart.”
“Maybe you’re throwing off the curve. You kept it together okay.”
She never seemed to understand how hard he worked not to freak out at the slightest hint of danger to her.
